Software delivers full BI capabilities on one architecture.
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Press Release Summary:
From single, Web Services-based SOA, Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) software delivers zero-footprint interface for all users, authors, and administrators that streamlines access to information. It allows complete range of BI functionality, which includes reporting, analysis, dashboarding, scorecarding, and business event management, to be performed against any organizational data. Process-driven software also offers ability to report OLAP data and maintain dimensional awareness.
Original Press Release:
Cognos Launches Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: First Solution to Deliver Full BI Capabilities in a Single Product, on a Single Architecture
- Simple, complete and proven solution accelerates BI standardization enterprise-wide -
NEW YORK, Sept. 14 / -- Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management (CPM), today announced the worldwide launch of Cognos 8 Business Intelligence, the industry's first product that provides the complete range of BI functionality on a single, proven Web Services-based architecture. Cognos 8 BI will be unveiled globally to customers, media and analysts at simultaneous events today in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, London, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and Zurich.
"Today, the revolution we initiated with Cognos ReportNet(TM) two years ago continues," said Rob Ashe, president and CEO, Cognos. "With ReportNet, Cognos redefined enterprise reporting. With Cognos 8 BI, we are redefining enterprise business intelligence -- providing a solid BI foundation for companies demanding a simpler path to complete corporate performance management."
Cognos 8 BI is based on the proven and powerful Web Services-based, service-oriented architecture (SOA) first introduced with Cognos ReportNet(TM) in 2003. ReportNet is the fastest-selling product in Cognos history, generating more than $235 million in license revenue through Q1FY06 and now in use by more than 2,500 customers worldwide.
Cognos 8 BI is the only solution that provides the complete range of BI capabilities in a single product, on a single architecture. It is also the only solution to deliver a simplified, zero-footprint interface for all users, authors and administrators. Easy to integrate, deploy and use, Cognos 8 BI delivers a simplified BI environment that drives high user adoption, enables better decision-making, and serves as an enterprise-scale technology foundation for performance management, now and in the future.
"In a survey for TDWI's recent study, Enterprise Business Intelligence: Strategies and Technologies for Deploying BI on an Enterprise Scale, 66% of respondents indicated that they desired to transform departmental BI into an enterprise-standard solution," said Wayne Eckerson, director of research and services for The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). "The ultimate goal is to provide more users with timely access to better, more consistent information - - while at the same time reducing costs. The ability of Cognos 8 BI to meet the needs of a broad range of users with a single product will be attractive to enterprise BI customers."
In addition to simplifying the deployment of BI with a single product and architecture, Cognos 8 BI includes many enhancements to streamline the access to information for improved decision-making:
All BI Capabilities Against Any Data
Cognos 8 BI is the first BI product to eliminate barriers to data access. Extended open data access capabilities allow the complete range of BI functionality -- reporting, analysis, dashboarding, scorecarding and event management -- to be performed against any organizational data, whether relational or OLAP, helping to eliminate information silos that can inhibit decision-making. While competing solutions require separate tools to view different types of data, Cognos 8 BI uniquely delivers a single metadata layer and a single query engine, providing customers with a single, trusted place for all relevant data and a complete and consistent view of any business issue or driver.
Dimensional Reporting and Dynamic Dashboards
Cognos 8 BI's comprehensive reporting capabilities are suitable for business style and production and business style reports, real-time dashboards, as well as ad-hoc queries. New in Cognos 8 BI is the ability to report OLAP data and maintain dimensional awareness, enabling consumers of a report or dashboard to simply click and drill down to the right level of information required for decision-making. Also, new chart styles such as gauges and maps, as well as rich graphical formatting, enable the creation of more dynamic and high-impact reports and dashboards.
Deep, Comparative Analysis
To simplify the exploration and discovery of information, Cognos 8 BI makes it easier for users to perform complex analysis, even against very large data sources. Enhancements include the ability to apply compound filters, nest subsets of information, and compare different levels of information -- all with drag-and-drop ease. Now, for example, comparing the top five sales reps in the bottom five regions, across the top five products, can be done quickly and easily. Analysis can also be performed against multi- dimensionally modeled relational data in addition to OLAP data.
Powerful Business Event Management and Process Integration
Based on the proven Cognos alerting capability, Cognos 8 BI offers the industry's only business event management. It automatically monitors data and alerts users in real-time of key operational or performance events -- with information in context -- via email or Web-based news items through the RSS channel. It eliminates the SPAM that normally occurs with first-generation alerting technology by only notifying users when there has been a change to the status of the event. With Cognos 8 BI, events can be sequenced, and through the use of Web services, events can be resolved instantly without user interaction by automatically launching business processes -- even those that are part of a larger business process management (BPM) system. Cognos 8 BI supports operational business intelligence needs by managing the full lifecycle of the event, escalating actions if the event continues, and closing the loop as the event completes.
Cognos 8 BI is fully process-driven, and Cognos has joined with leading BPM vendors to enable right-time, process-aware business intelligence. This tight integration with BPM solutions makes it easy for users to access business intelligence as part of an established business process. For more information, see today's related release at http://cognos.com/news/releases/2005/0914_5.html.
Actionable BI
Scorecarding has been enhanced with advanced initiative tracking, enabling managers to monitor actions and decisions to correct and improve performance associated with a key metric. This enables decisions to be tracked over time and provides a formal corporate decision-making memory that will help users learn from the past when faced with new problems and opportunities. Users can also now get a quick feel for a metric's trend by simply moving their mouse over a metric and viewing an advanced history chart.
Integrated Performance Management
As part of its open data access, Cognos 8 BI capabilities can natively access Cognos Planning and Consolidation data. Using Cognos 8 BI, production reports that show budget vs. actual can be easily created, as can alerts that track budget variances and proactively notify management before any damage is done. Agents can even be created to monitor the status of plan and budget completion.
Increased Self-Service
Cognos 8 BI also enables extended self-service across BI capabilities, alleviating IT resources and allowing users to work with personalized, consistent information using familiar interfaces that fit their needs and skills. For example, users can easily perform ad-hoc queries against relational or OLAP data, graphically format the result using corporate templates, and then share the report with colleagues -- without ever involving skilled report authors or IT.
"Cognos provides us with cutting-edge technology and Cognos 8 BI continues that standard of excellence," said Sherry Neubert, development manager, Enterprise Data Warehouse, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. "The product's capabilities, ranging from self-service reporting for ad-hoc requests to operational reporting for key projects, provide an opportunity to accelerate and simplify our enterprise-wide deployment."
"Cognos 8 BI enables reporting and analysis on plans, budgets and forecasts and also applies business event management to the planning and budgeting process. Key performance targets are derived directly from the plans and can be applied automatically and seamlessly to the scorecards," said Vivian Adashek, manager, US Finance, Manpower, Inc. "The integration of analysis capabilities with Cognos Planning is fantastic and allows for the instantaneous creation of cubes. The new features should provide our users with better visibility into plans, the ability to compare plans to actuals and take appropriate action in a very timely manner."
For more endorsements from Cognos customers, please see today's related release at http://cognos.com/news/releases/2005/0914_4.html
"Building on the successful combination of Cognos ReportNet(TM) and IBM's DB2 Universal Database, we are pleased to have worked with Cognos on the development of Cognos 8 BI," said Karen Parrish, vice president, worldwide business intelligence solutions at IBM. "Cognos 8 BI combines the power and scalability of IBM's middleware with Cognos' proven, easy to use analytics solutions. The focus of our partnership continues to be on delivering increased business value to customers by providing fast, easy access to critical information with a lower total cost of ownership."
For more endorsements from Cognos technology partners, please see today's related release at http://cognos.com/news/releases/2005/0914_8.html
For more endorsements from Cognos OEM partners, please see today's related release at http://cognos.com/news/releases/2005/0914_7.html
For more endorsements from Cognos reseller partners, please see today's related release at http://cognos.com/news/releases/2005/0914_6.html
Cognos 8 Business Intelligence is available now as a controlled release and will be generally available in November.
ABOUT COGNOS:
Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management, delivers software and services that helps companies drive, monitor and understand corporate performance.
Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage -- Corporate Performance Management (CPM) -- achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale. Our integrated CPM solution helps customers drive performance through planning; monitor performance through scorecarding; and understand performance through business intelligence.
Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos enterprise business intelligence solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at www.cognos.com/.
Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Web site: www.cognos.com
